Neuroscience of Marketing: Can we really read buyers’ minds?
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
Breakthrough scientific research currently underway at Carnegie Mellon University allows researchers to read the minds of their subjects. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, researchers were able to scan the brains of participants and determine which of a predetermined set of pictures the subject was thinking about.
Granted, this is a far cry from the ability to scan someone and determine innermost thoughts and desires, but it is a baby-step toward a whole new level of marketing research. Just imagine the possibilities! In the future you may design a new advertisement and present it to a test panel in an fMRI setting to determine whether people are focusing on your logo, your tagline, or simply the attractive model in the picture.
This fledgling idea is still in development, and is still much too expensive to be practical. However, this research could have interesting implications for the future of marketing research efforts.
